By my own rules I’m not allowed to write the full name of disgraced plagiarist and Islam-osculator C. J. W*rl*m*n, so I’ve disemvoweled his name. I note that his Wikipedia entry, which described his plagiarism and other bizarre deeds as well as his osculation of Islam, has now been deleted (I have no idea why). I refer you, reluctantly, to his Twitter feed. You can find his plagiarism amply described on this website; much of the cribbing was found by Stephen Knight, creator of the Godless Spellchecker website.

The Man Who Cannot be Named was once a strong critic of Islam, but then something happened: an atheist, he began ripping into New Atheism à la Glenn Greenwald and, also like Greenwald, became an Islamophile, working for Islamic outlets and constantly decrying “Islamophobia”. The conversion was, I think, intensified when he was found guilty of plagiarism and could no longer write for mainstream outlets. And of course when you become hugely sympathetic to Islam, you gain a big new audience that isn’t so scrupulous about your journalism.

Now, it seems, W*rl*m*n is issuing encomiums for Muslim terrorist-supporting organizations (he’s always blamed their existence on the West). They even seem to be supporting him.

I tender this Twitter thread, which gives documentation for the claims. It was found by Grania. Note the bizarre touting of a bogus Qur’an. Stephen Knight is a main participant in the thread.

Thread.CJ Werleman (nominally a leftist) is in deep with the Islamist far right, and it should be no surprise to anyone who has paid even a little attention to his sketchy career. https://t.co/MnCeBV7bWb

3. MEND (another Islamist group) funds CAGE and shares the same values. It seems one is an extension of the other. MEND gains recognition in places where CAGE is shunned, all the while pretending to be completely separate entities https://t.co/wrBWOnRBDR

Werleman knows very well that people who leave Islam face social isolation and, depending on the country, possible execution.Yet he is not shy in revealing his callous disdain towards ex-Muslims. pic.twitter.com/gcTLrObutz

In his response to CJW, Sherlock analysed the Rashid Khalifa translation of the Koran from the 80s, explaining how it was bowdlerized. He mentioned Khalifa’s idea that the number 19 is a key to understanding, Gnostic-style, the Koran. I came across a follower of Khalifa who also applied it to the Hebrew bible, and who claimed that his Prof. at the University of Leiden supported him. There was no contradicting him.

Khalifa is an outlier in a modern tendency in Islamic “scholarship” to re-translate the unchangeable text in light of scientific developments. Here is one example of how it works.

The myth that the Koran described the expansion of the universe is the ur-example of apologetic shiftiness in translating the book. For this allegation Muslims should be ashamed of themselves. Here is why.

Let us look at translations of verse 51:47 (for that is what my interlocutor on a course on Islam was referring to) before or about the time of Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe in the 1930s.

“…With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of space…. ” Yusuf Ali
“…We have built the heaven with might, and We it is Who make the vast extent (thereof)…. ” Pickthall ”
…And the heaven, We raised it high with power, and most surely We are the makers of things ample…. ” Shakir

Nothing here about an expanding universe. Now, let us look at a sample of translations since Hubble.

Shabbir Ahmed: “And it is We Who have built the Universe, and behold, We are steadily expanding it.”
Dr. Munir Munshey: “With Our power and prowess, We brought into being the universe. And indeed, We expand it (steadily)!”
Progressive Muslims: “And We constructed the universe using matter, and We will expand it.”

The vast majority of other examples follow the “expanding universe” idea.

The translation and the meaning have changed. Now, all of a sudden, the Koran thinks the universe is expanding. Parenthetically, the Koran has a 1 in 3 chance of being right: the universe is either getting bigger, or smaller or staying the same size – that is not a sign of a Koranic miracle. This looks a lot like changing your own “unchangeable” holy scripture to comport with science. And this “scientific miracles” craze merely dates from the 70s. Then, to try and fool non-Muslims with this really does demonstrate how little Muslim apologists are interested in the free exchange of fact and opinion. People really do not like being treated as if they are that gullible. When they spread this idea, they are repeating a deception.

Ha-ha, TJR. The Koran itself says it is written in “clear Arabic”, but Gerd Puin, the Islamicist scholar, says that 20% of it is unintelligible.

Ordinary apologists claim all the time that they understand the classical Arabic in which it was written. They probably do not.

Here is a tip: when they produce a paragraph of detailed etymology explaining how this word does not mean “kill” but “love” and it has all been a dreadful misunderstanding, copy and paste the para., bung it into Google & read through the first Muslim apologetics site you come across. They have invariably nicked it, word for word.

I’d heard tell of such creatures, but assumed they must be mythical, like centaurs and dragons, or perhaps extinct, like woolly mammoths and passenger pigeons. Good to know they’re merely rare and endangered, like the three-toed pygmy sloth. Props!

Good for The Godless Spellchecker for bringing this bullshit to light. Shame on CJ. This is a clear example of how the extreme left has been taken over by Islamist apologists in much the same way that it was taken over by Stalin and Mao worship in the late 1960s. Anything that opposes the big bad West is ok regardless of how egregious its own crimes against humanity. In CJ’s case, it may be a pure and simple opportunist money grab as his reward for latching onto this hopefully decreasingly popular, incredibly dangerous bandwagon. If anyone in this forum hasn’t subscribed to The Godless Spellchecker podcast, I would encourage them to do so. He is a beacon of clear free-thought in a world increasingly drowning in fake news.